Kreuzberg-Friedrichstrasse
Friedrichstrasse runs north to south and extends to the central Berlin district of Mitte. It was the heart of the old government quarter before World War II. Heavily damaged during the war, the southern part of it in Kreuzberg was rebuilt as a housing area, with the street terminating at Mehringplatz. Friedrichstrasse is a mixed bag—old government offices have been re-appropriated or abandoned; lower income people take up residences in cheap flats. 'Axel Springer AG' :The Axel Springer building is just around the corner from Friedrichstrasse. This twenty-storey glass and gold monstrosity houses the largest media publisher in Germany, publisher of Die Welt, Bild, B.Z.(both tabloids), Berlin Morgenpost, the German Rolling Stone, and many, many more. A firm believer in German reunification, Axel Springer erected this building in 1966, on the edge of the Soviet border as a gigantic, golden symbol of free speech. The offices in the top floor provide a bird's eye view of the “death strip”—a sobering reminder of the press's political mission during these tumultuous times. :All of the Axel Springer publications follow his conservative (by German standards), right-wing leanings—“to uphold liberty and law”, “to reject totalitarism”, and “to uphold the principles of a free market economy”. One of the largest publishing house in Germany, Ullstein Verlag, had been bought by Springer in 1960. Critics say (and there have been critics) that the press cannot be that free if Axel Springer has a near monopoly of all the media publications in Berlin. 'Cafe Adler' :An unassuming cafe located across the street from Checkpoint Charlie. This place is the favourite haunt of journalists, spies and diplomats, who might pop in with a copy of Die Welt under their arm to enjoy some coffee and pastries, while staring down at agents of the Communist regime from just a few feet away. Here one can watch the East German guards at their posts, watch the Allied personnel roll up to the border—in their black cars and military jeeps, and watch the fellow patrons at the cafe—and wonder, as these types go, if they have something to hide. :The interior of the cafe is quite plain. Chairs with green padding provide seating, and an out-of-style orange wallpaper decorates the walls. The wooden coffee tables are small and can seat up to four guests. 'Checkpoint Charlie' Checkpoint Charlie, on Friedrichstrasse, is a crossing point for foreigners, diplomats, and Allied personnel. One can cross by foot or by car as long as one has the requisite permits. On the Western side, the Allies keep a wooden shed with a few guards to “maintain military presence”, doing no actual border control whatsoever. On the Eastern side, besides two layers of concrete wall, there are watchtowers, barbed wire, and Czech hedgehog barriers, as well as a multi-lane shed where cars and their occupants are checked for processing. A famous sign on the west side has “YOU ARE NOW LEAVING THE AMERICAN SECTOR” displayed in four different languages. At night, the checkpoint is illuminated by harsh yellow lights installed all around the booths. The guards are constantly on high alert; the searchlights sweep through once every few minutes. The occasional tank can be seen parked across the wall. ''East Berlin-Mitte You end up in Mitte, the “central” district of Berlin. If you make your way to Alexanderplatz, the main square, you can see Marxist monuments built since the 1960’s—the Fountain of Friendship between Peoples, the World Time Clock, and the Fernsehturm (TV Tower). The square is lined with grey concrete tiles, and is wide and empty, seemingly devoid of life. You can head to Unter den Linden, a tree-lined boulevard with many of Germany’s historical landmarks—the Crown Prince’s Palace, the Berlin State Opera, the (original) Berlin State Library, and Humboldt University. Plush, old hotels and foreign embassies are also likely to be located on this street. If you head to Museum Island, you can see the green dome of the Berlin Cathedral dominating the skyline. Five other museums are also located here, restored to varying degrees by the Soviets. Bahnhof Berlin-Friedrichstrasse :Western S-bahn and U-bahn services pass through this station, which is actually located in East Berlin. This particular U-bahn line heads on north to Tegel; in between, en route through East Berlin, there are a series of “ghost stations”—Geisterbahnhoefe—where the trains pass through without stopping. The trains do stop at Friedrichstrasse, which serves as a transfer point for S-bahn, U-bahn, and regional lines as well as an entrance point into East Germany. This is a vast train station with a maze-like underground portion, not accessible to the East Germans, and an overground portion with passport checks, customs control, waiting rooms, interrogation rooms, holding cells, registration offices, and a counter for visa fees and currency exchange. :The station is monitored by cameras, and patrolled by armed guards with sniffer dogs, plain-clothes agents, and Stasi officers. All sorts of measures have been implemented to prevent East Germans from escaping. One of its halls is dubbed Traenenpalast (“Palace of Tears”), due to the tearful goodbyes between those who can cross the border and those who had to remain behind. On the West Berlin side, there are duty-free shops offering alcohol and tobacco, where the passengers can disembark from their train and make a purchase without having to pass through East German border control. 'U-Bahnhof Kochstrasse''' An old U-bahn station that has seen better days. The walls are overwhelmingly grey, and the steel pillars along the platform are painted yellow. Category:Kreuzberg